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ISIS: a Product of the United States' Quest for the Neoconservative Identity

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ISIS: a Product of the United States' Quest for the Neoconservative Identity Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2016 ISIS: A Product of the United States' Quest for the Neoconservative Identity Christopher White Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation White, Christopher, "ISIS: A Product of the United States' Quest for the Neoconservative Identity". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2016. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/535 ISIS: A Product of the United States’ Quest for the Neoconservative Identity Christopher White Trinity College—Hartford, CT Class of 2016 1 Table of Contents: Introduction: pg 3 Ch 1: Four Theses on the Role of the United States Within the International Order pg 5 Ch 2: America and the Iran-Iraq War (1982-1988): the Development of the Four Theses of America’s International Position? pg 21 Ch 3: A New International Order: The Gulf War and the Changing Role of the Untied States in the Post Cold War Security Environment pg 45 Interlude: President Clinton—Continuing an American Tradition in Iraq pg 74 Ch 4: The Invasion of Iraq 2003: Resuming the Neoconservative Tradition of American Foreign Policy in the Middle East pg 81 Conclusion: The Threat of ISIS—A Product of the Long Tradition of Neoconservatism and the American Identity in Iraq pg 100 2 Introduction Today the United States is engaged in a war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Islamic extremist group poses real life threats to people all over the world. From San Berardino, California to Paris, France, ISIS has been terrorizing the world through violence and hate. They are undeniably the enemy of the United States and a major focus of it foreign policy efforts. But how did ISIS come to be? There is a tendency to think of ISIS as an anomaly born out of the darkest corners of radical Islam. However, ISIS is anything but a singularity. ISIS is apart of a much broader relationship between the United States and Iraq. They are the product of almost 40 years of American policy specifically tailored for the Iraq. The purpose of this project is to locate the existence of ISIS within a broader historical lens of American foreign policy and its quest to define itself within the international order. In order to do this it is necessary to start in the 1980’s when the White House was occupied by the Reagan administration. Before examining the long relationship between the United States and Iraq, it is necessary to outline four dominant theses about the United States’ position within the international community. The first chapter will discussion the major tenets of each of the following theses: 1) unipolarity: the belief that the United States is the world’s sole superpower; 2) neoconservatism: the belief that the United States is the world’s sole superpower and has the moral obligation to spread democracy through the use of its military; 3) the “Rise of the Rest”: other nations are rising to match the capabilities of the 3 United States, therefore multipolar and multilateral diplomacy should be the dominate path of American policy; and 4) “American Descent”: since the Vietnam War, the United States has consistently been declining in relative power and respect from the international community. This chapter will allow for a deeper understanding of the complex relationship that would develop between the United States and Iraq and how the American identity would become linked to it. Each subsequent chapter will focus on one of the three major interactions the United States and Iraq shared: the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Gulf War (1990-1991), and the Iraq War (2003). Under the Reagan administration, the United States acted as a military advisor while providing some aid. Set in the Cold War era, the development of neoconservatism and a strong agenda began to occur within the administration, however; they were constrained by Cold War power politics. The next chapter focuses on the Gulf War and president H.W. Bush. After declaring a New World Order, the Bush Sr. administration organized a united coalition in a fight against Saddam Hussein. While its efforts were channeled through multilateral organizations, the United States viewed itself as a globally hegemonic power simply appeasing the presence of other perspectives of how they should act within the international community. In a short interlude briefly outlining the Clinton years, I will show how the United States’ policy towards Iraq became entrenched in how they defined themselves within the world. Finally, I will examine the Iraq War in 2003. The post-9/11 security environment created the condition viable for the resurgence of the neoconservative agenda and ultimately successful implementation of its policy under the presidency of George W. Bush. 4 Chapter 1: Four Theses on the Role of the United States Within the International Order There are several theories floating around the scholarly community about America’s position within the international structure: Unipolarity, neoconservatism, the “Rise of the Rest” and the “American Descent.” While each of these theses locates America within the international system, there are several major differences among them. Firstly, I will deconstruct the arguments in order for the reader to get a fuller understanding of each. From there I will use each thesis as a lens to analyze America’s three major interactions with Iraq (Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War), looking at the justifications provided by the executive branch and other important players in order to determine which school of thought most accurately describes American foreign policy. The significance of this information will allow me to determine how American should act going forward in a post Cold-War security environment. It is important to understand the main differences between the theses, as they will each provide a deeper significance for the development of American identity and its subsequent foreign policy in Iraq. Unipolarity The unipolarity thesis views international relations as a system where one state obtains significant supremacy in the areas of cultural, economic, and military influence. They are the sole ruler and authority in the international community because their power and influence is second to none. A common train of thinking throughout unipolar theorists is the idea that states no longer are threatened by other states through direct 5 military engagement. There are forces and ideologies outside of the concept of nationhood that pose unique threats in an international system dominated by one superpower: the United States of America. One prominent scholar Charles Krauthammer, author of The Unipolar Moment Revisited, argues that the United States is the world’s only superpower. In the world of international relations the United States has risen to such an elevated position in terms of resources, economy, military might, that no other nation comes even close to America. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the world no longer had two competing superpowers. It now only had one and that super power was the United States. Krauthammer argues that in a post Cold-War security environment, the United States no longer has to worry about competing with other nation states. He claims the only realistic threat to American unipolarity is a collection of rouge states with weapons of mass destruction (Krauthammer 2002). To delve more specifically, Krauthammer indicts radical Islam as the biggest perpetrator of threating America and world security. It was radical Islamists who attacked the United States on September 11th and they still pose a significant threat to the international community. If the end of the Cold War created a world with asymmetry, Krauthammer claims “September 11 heighted the asymmetry” even more (Krauthammer 2002, 7). He highlights the fact that the attacks allowed the United States to demonstrate to the world three things: American military power; a new form of American strength and resoluteness; and realigning of nations behind American interests and foreign policy. The unipolar thesis fundamentally argues against the liberal internationalism school of thought. While liberal internationalism “seeks through multilateralism to 6 transcend power politics, narrow national interests, and ultimately the nation-state itself” Krauthammer argues this simply cannot occur because of the Untied States’ position as a unipolar power (Krauthammer 2002, 12). If the international system had other significant players with the ability to move towards liberal internationalist goals, then they would have already done so. Krauthammer thinks this is a naïve view of the world and that the United States position on top of the international order reigns supreme over all other nation-states, international governing bodies, and non-state actors. Another team of scholars, Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth authors of American Primacy in Perspective, agree with Krauthammer’s claim that American is the world’s only superpower. They argue, “If today’s American primacy does not constitute unipolarity, then nothing ever will” (Brooks and Wohlforth 2002, 21). Brooks and Wohlforth point out that the United States’ has supremacy in three areas that allow it to hold its position as a hegemon: the military, economic dominance, and supremacy in technology. However they claim it isn’t just military supremacy, technological supremacy, or economic supremacy but the combination of all these at the same time that make the United States the unipolar power (Brooks and Wohlforth 2002). Something that Brooks and Wohlforth and Krauthammer disagree on is what threats exist to American hegemony. While Krauthammer believes it is only rouge states with WMD capabilities, Brooks and Wohlforth find that China “is the only feasible threat to U.S. unipolarity” (Brooks and Wohlforth 2002).
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